Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble match in history

14. Royal Rumble 2006 – Rey Mysterio

I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would put the 2006 Royal Rumble a little higher on the all-time list given the record-setting performance of Rey Mysterio, who entered at number two and lasted 1:02:12, which still stands as the longest performance in Royal Rumble history. And while this match served as a well-deserved tribute to the late Eddie Guerrero, who had passed away about two months prior, I was still more impressed by the performance of Triple H, who himself went over an hour from the number one position and did a lot more in this match than Rey did.

I really don’t want this to sound like I’m bashing Mysterio but if you go back and watch this match, you’ll see him take a lot of breaks in this match. And I’m not saying that if you’re going to be out there for an hour that you don’t deserve a break at some point but he took A LOT of breaks. But the emotional element here is what puts it in this spot on the list. It’s not often that a guy like Rey Mysterio is going to win a match like the Royal Rumble and the underdog thing has always played well with him. He’s almost always going to be the smallest guy in a match and that does have to factor in here.

With all of that being said, this was a good Royal Rumble match. There were a few quiet moments in the middle but that happens just about every year. It usually was Triple H that livened things up at these times and his performance usually gets lost when talking about this one. He was part of the final three along with Mysterio and Randy Orton and despite everything I said, it was a cool moment to see Rey eliminate two of the biggest stars in WWE history to pick up the victory. And the emotion that poured out at the end really was something special.